Friday, November 26, 2010

My Dad is old school country music, Hank Williams and John Cash, and about the most rock and roll he ever got was Buddy Holly. We went to Sudbury for New Year's last year at the curling club and part of the entertainment was a Buddy Holly impersonator or as my Dad said 'they're having a Buddy Holly guy'. He was pretty excited about that.

Mom is what the old radio stations would call 'easy listening'. Old school crooners and singers like Englebert Humpyourdink and Tom Jones. Awful stuff in my opinion but music is whatever you dig so who am I to say. I can't stand a bit of what my wife listens to and she feels the same way for the most part. Makes long drives excruciating unless its around Christmas and then we put on the carols.

So I'm working on the little ones and they can recognize the Beatles and U2 and they like Van Morrison and I hope it can stem the tide oozing out of Jenn's IPod but really I don't expect them to like what I like. Maybe thirty years down the road they'll dig the Hip and Blue Rodeo and Neil Young and Pearl Jam. God if they're worth anything they'll know that Neil Young is the

rock and roll.

I didn't learn about rock and roll from my folks that's for sure so I don't think the midgets will follow in my footsteps. My first exposure to the rock music was in Doug Catton's basement. I would have been around ten. Doug's family lived across from the neighbourhood rink. He was the third of four and he and his younger brother shared a room and his sister had the other bedroom and his oldest brother lived in the basement. His brother was in high school and he had a job and a big 70s muscle car and he smoked and he barely tolerated it when we lingered downstairs. But that was the first time I heard Kiss and Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin.

Rock and roll.

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Although I wouldn't call the win over the Avs a total handjob I don't think I have enjoyed a game more in a long time and that includes the handjobs against the Blackhawks and the Flames earlier in the year. The kids took advantage of a tired Colorado club to have a nice third period and the last two minutes were worth the price of admission, first Paajarvi's rushes and then the final foray by Eberle and the crosscrease pass to Hall who made no mistake.

Throw in some typical Stortini doggedness and an unusually angry (and thus more effective) Penner (maybe they told him that he's stuck in Edmonton until the end of his contract?) and it was an enjoyable game to watch.

But there was one guy who made the night for me.

Theo Peckham.

It helps that Theo can actually play. He can skate and he can move the puck pretty well. He's got decent instincts and while there are times he gets the yips out there for the most part he's not running around like, say, Matt Greene did back in the day. And speaking of Greene for the most part Theo stays out of the box unless he's been after somebody. He doesn't beat a steady path there for getting his stick on someone after they've gone around him.

Theo has had some seasoning and it shows. He's played in the minors for a while and he's not a teenager and he can play.

And man he is entertaining. He runs guys over and takes no prisoners and he hurts guys and the Oilers have been waiting for a guy like this for a while, a guy who can play defence and punish the other team with exuberance. He's a throwback too, a guy who goes after little fuckers like Sean Avery when they go running down the tunnel, a guy who punishes the rats like Matt Cooke and Claude Lemieux.

I was watching last night and everytime Theo ran someone over I was laughing and snorting and scratching myself with great enthusiasm. This kid makes this terrible terrible team awfully fun to watch when he's on the ice.

He's like couch sex after the kids have been put to bed. Raw and rough and a little bit dirty and a goddamn good show all the way.

11 comments:

possibly Pat saw the season finale of south park and was inspired by the theme?

Oh, and Neil is the Rock and Roll for sure. I had to discover it without my parents help as well, but I found it young and had good help. Dad was a blues and jazz guy, with a bit of soul and funk thrown in for good measure, while mom's music consisted of basically nothing except the occasional Barbara Streisand cassette. Her younger brothers on the other hand had me listening to the Beatles before I was 5 years old and Neil and Led Zep not long after that. Some friends of mine and I were so devoted to the Beatles that by the 4th grade, we had each assumed a Beatle identity and ended up doing this crazy extra credit assignment about them that included a board game about their history. If anyone cares, I was the George equivalent, and lord knows it shaped my personality from that point forward, especially politically...But I had no way of knowing that until much later in life. By the time I was 10, Grunge happened and Pearl Jam changed the way I looked at music.

It was good that I started early...

Last night's game was kind of a tease, a moment where you think to yourself, Ok, Vet goaltender who battles hard, a defence that, while awful, didn't shit the bed, the reunion of the only consistent line from last year's abomination of a team, and the rookies flying around in the third. For a second, I caught a glimpse of what the future might look like, kinda like I did in 1991 when I first heard "Alive" and realized I needed a guitar.

rubbertrout - refer to the post from November 1st in which I compare this season to an endless Greyhound bus ride with the odd bit of glory being equivalent to the always hoped for but never delivered anonymous handjob.

A clumsy and inappropriare metaphor, much like Tambellini's management of this club.

shepso - oh man, Alive, one of my favourite tunes ever.

I've seen Neil twice. Once in the early nineties with Pearl Jam and Soundgarden and yes it was amazing and back in my first year of university at the Gardens. Also saw John Mellancamp, Sting and Lou Reed that year, it was Sting's first solo project. The Police would break up soon after I believe. Never saw them.

And Lou Reed, well there was a show. Love The Velvet Underground.

But Neil took the cake. Always has for me. My musical tastes don't range too far afield and I have no talent for it myself. But I love it. I'm a big Hip guy, as befits a hoser, and love a lot of other Canadians - Blue Rodeo, Spirit of the West, Northern Pikes, Daniel Lanois and so on. And the music I grew up with in the 80s and early 90s, well that's my soundtrack, if you know what I mean.

But mostly I listen to 60s and 70s stuff and yes I am a George Harrison guy when it comes to the Beatles as well.

Still no live Neil, I hate to admit. It never seems to work out for me with him, and yet I've probably been to about 150 concerts in my 29 years, beginning with the Stones on the Voodoo LOunge tour in 1994. It was a bar mitzvah gift from one of my dad's best friends. I never looked back, going to punk rock all ages gigs, sneaking into clubs with fake IDs, to road trips for festivals across the continent. Highlights include Radiohead in Vancouver, Springsteen in Detroit and Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction in Toronto. Pearl Jam was still my most watched live band, having seen them 5 times including the "Prairie Cup" of Edmonton, Calgary and Saskatoon on their 2005 Canadian tour. The best though was when a buddy and I flew to Denver to catch Pearl Jam and Tom Petty play together. Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench (Heartbreakers Guitarist and Keyboardist for those who don't know) played with PJ for their encore, including a cover of the Byrds "so you wanna be a rock n roll star." Then Eddie came out during the Heartbreakers set and sang "American Girl." He sang again during the encore on "The Waiting" and then both bands came out and did a killer version of Bob Dylan's "Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35 (Everybody must get stoned...)" Best rock n roll moment of my life right there, until this past summer when I went on tour with my friends band and got to play a few songs each night. Nothing says rock n roll like shotgunning beers in a van, grabbing your gear and playing your heart out, not mattering if there was an audience of 10 people or 150.

I did end up buying that guitar... and then another, and finally my pride and joy-an American Standard series Fender Telecaster.

Lou Reed would have been amazing, and I can't believe you saw Neil and PJ together. That would've been something special!

Well since we're onto a good subject here, let's keep that ball rolling.1. The kids are [will be] alright. Somehow, back in the day, we were all very aware and somehow particular about segregating our music. Bands, genres, Kiss or Zeppelin. Beatles or Stones. Punk, or garage or country, or metal, or whatever Queen or Axl Rose were.

Forget about it. The kids now are omnivores and they will listen to Everything, and, surprise, the cream still rises to the top. They will happily surprise you and equally love all of The Killers, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, Elton John, Sympathy for the Devil, Reggae, Prince, Elvis, Dolly, Aretha... And they'll dig Neil too. It's amazing, really.

2. Neil live I've never really got into. He pulls out the black Paul with the monster, snarling sound, but it just seems to go on and on. A song at a time it's awesome. Ten songs in a row, with double-length solos, not so much.

3. Kathleen Edwards is awesome live. Plays Alicia Ross all alone on the LP Jr. You can hear a pin drop in the place. I forgot to breathe.

4. What was 4 again? Oh yeah, it's Hall. Reason to believe.

5. George Harrison. No, I guess he didn't write all those songs, but one day you start listening a little more carefully and the light goes on: you finally realize what he brought to the table, the sounds and riffs that made the band sound the way it did, and put all those songs over the top. George was the shit, and he's never brought up when people discuss guitar players. Absolute gem.

6. The VelvetsThey say Mo Tucker made joining the band her condition for letting Sterling Morrison borrow her brother's guitar. Or something like that. Rock and Roll will be the song played when my casket gets wheeled out someday: "One fine morning she puts on a NY station she can't believe what she hears at all. She started shakin to that fine fine music, you know her life was saved by Rock and Roll".

well Music in out road trips have suit my wifes needs. But given that I always add a song or two for my own personal enjoyment. I did turn the kids into Offspring fans... gotta keep em separated. Peckham is going to be a player if he does not fall to pieces due to the hits. Belle seems to be pretty docile for my liking.The guy I have seen the most is George Thorogood must be 10 times. he always put on good show. Sometimes while watching the Oilers I think that a Thorgood night would be good 1 scotch 1 bourbon 1 beer(repeat as necessary) . But I gave up the drink 20 years ago so no need to go back. Saw the Hip in Kingston Bar before they released there 1st album. They put on great show too.. Go Oilers. Saw Halen on 84 tour when Diamond Dave was in peak form he was the best frontman ever. No the best singer but an entertainer no holds barred. Hall has that card up his sleeve..

I grew up in a house full of good music: my dad plays a bunch of instruments, and has eclectic taste, so as a little kid I was listening to Miles Davis, the Beatles, Howlin' Wolf, Lenny Breau, on and on. I always gravitated to the harder-edged stuff, whether Carmina Burana (which I called "the banging and crashing music" as a toddler) or Helter Skelter. When I was around eight I started getting records out of my local library branch, which was staffed by a variety of miscreants and complete social misfits, with mohawks, etc., back when that was still dangerous. When I found the Ramones, I was blown away, and from there got into local gods SNFU, plus DOA, Dead Kennedys, Random Killing (!), and a whole bunch of metal.

My parents never stressed about any of this: I remember bringing home a brand-new copy of ...And Justice For All. My mom muttered something about the lyrics being awfully nihilistic, my dad appreciated the shifting time signatures but suggested I put on headphones, and that was it. Pretty tolerant, considering I was in Grade 4.

Mr Pat Black Dog: I don't know if you ever got into Big Star or the Replacements; meat & potatoes rock, but with an edge, and just awesome lyrics.

I grew up with two older aunts and began listening to their old records - mostly old disco and abba and things like K-Tell presents the best of 1977 or something like that - and one of their boyfriends was into music and from him I learned about the Eagles and Springsteen and the Alan Parsons Project and along the way I may have borrowed some his tape and not given them back;)

Also, the local radio station did this thing called Electric Lunch where they'd play old school rock and I loved it. When I was nine I bought Heartbeat City by the cars and the next year I had a columbia house membership and off I went. and I listened to everything as a kid from Bruce Hornsby to Testament so the person's right when he says that kids will find the good stuff or at least stuff that appeals to them.

I have sort of moved away from music these days, but back when I was a teenager on the farm I used to love it when I got to use the "good" tractor. The one with the 8 track. Dad had, The Stampeders, The Who (Guess and real varieties, Bob and Doug Mackenzie and Peter Frampton Live. Perhaps not much of a selection, but I used to have fun rocking out while doing summer-fallow.

I am also a big Peckham fan. I work with a guy that coached against him in the A last year, and he says there is a healthy respect/fear in that league for what Teddy P. can do.